Embracing AI will be key to defending from future cyber attacks, says KnowBe4's Dan Hindley

“The cyber criminals are getting more advanced in their techniques, but on the flip side of that is how we can utilise AI from a defence perspective,” says Hindley.

“We are regularly looking into how we can flip the threat of AI on its head, and how we can utilise it to train and test users.

“I think the important thing is that we acknowledge that AI is here. People have really only started to properly discuss it over the last six to 12 months, but its not going to go away, so we have to embrace it.

“But when we do so, we have to also know that the cyber criminals are going to embrace it as well, and they’re going to get a lot more advanced, so I think it's important for organisations to understand what's coming.”

KnowBe4, which is based in Clearwater, Florida, recently moved its UK headquarters from North Yorkshire to Leeds. The firm currently has just over 80 employees in the UK, which it is hoping to double over the next few years, creating jobs both in Leeds and around the UK.

Hindley first joined the firm around seven years ago, working his way from regional account manager to director of sales. Originally from Leeds, he had previously worked at Stanley Security.

His comments come against a backdrop of increasing reports of cyber crime in the UK.

Government statistics show that over the last 12 months, 32 per cent of businesses and 24 per cent of charities have recalled cyber breaches or attacks.

69 per cent of large businesses saw attacks, and 59 per cent of high-income charities also reported attacks.

An IBM report from February of this year also showed that the UK is by far the most targeted country in Europe for cyber attacks, accounting for 43 per cent of attacks. Next highest number on the list was Germany, which reported just 14 per cent of attacks.

The value of data, Hindley notes, is one of the main reasons for the increase in cyber crime in recent years.

“Over the years, data has become one of the biggest commodities globally, whereas previously it was things like gold and oil,” he says.

“Now we're in a world where data is a huge commodity for organisations, and I think that has played a huge part in the rise of attacks. People are trying to get data by any means, and once they have it, it's really valuable.

“I think one of the most reliable constants when we look at the cyber security industry is that these threats are always increasing,” he adds.

“There are always things cyber criminals are looking at and developing.”

Hindley notes, however, that these attacks are most often not the complex cyber attacks that many people imagine them to be, and that they rely on user error within an orginisation.

“When a breach happens, everyone assumes it's really complicated stuff, but 90 per cent of the time it starts with a malicious email and someone opening an attachment and entering data,” he says, “over 90 per cent of breaches were due to human error over the last 12 months.”

KnowBe4 specialises in social engineering, a type of cyber crime which seeks to use deception to manipulate individuals into divulging information or allowing a criminal access to an otherwise protected system.

Though often done online, such attacks can also take place in person, with criminals entering a workplace and pretending to be a staff member or someone working on the building.

One of the most targeted sectors in the UK for cyber attacks, Hindley notes, is the health sector.

“You’ve got to sometimes try and put yourself in the bad actors shoes and think why they are going after healthcare,” he says, “It's about potential investment and finances that are available for a sector.

“We train and help organisations to train their employees and do things like spotting red flags in emails. It's the same techniques that are used for all industries and organisations.

“But if you have an orginisation that hasnt had the investment to be able to train their users, then ultimately you’ve got an organisation there that could have thousands of employees that aren't aware of what to look out for and aren't aware of what the red flags are.

“So when you look at the chance of somebody clicking a malicious link or something similar in a healthcare organisation, when compared to another organisation, the chances are significantly increased.”

KnowBe4 opened its new Leeds headquarters in September of this year. Around 60 per cent of the firm’s UK workforce is based in Leeds and the surrounding areas.

The company has said it plans to forge links with local universities, as well as the wider Leeds tech community.

“When you look at Leeds and the growing tech industry, you see really big companies moving into the city,” says Hindley.

“When we were looking where to move we also saw that a lot of our workforce was already based in Yorkshire, and we wanted to maintain and capture that culture that we had already built.

“Leeds was perfect for that, not only because of the access to the talent pool, but because of the fantastic universities.

“From a cyber security perspective, there's such a big growing industry in Leeds, and being able to be part of that is great. I think the more that tech community grows, the better we grow as a company as well.”